Dana Gas Q3 profit quadruples on higher output

Dubai, November 14, 2011

Dana Gas, the UAE energy firm, on Monday said its third-quarter net profit more than quadrupled buoyed by a 20 percent increase in total production and higher oil prices.

The Gulf's only listed natural gas company posted a third quarter net profit of 143 million dirhams ($38.9 million), compared with net profit of 33 million dirhams for the year-ago period, it said in a statement to the Abu Dhabi bourse.

Quarterly revenues from the sale of hydrocarbons rose to 645 million dirhams, a 58 percent increase over the 407 million dirhams revenue for the same period last year.

Dana said its production in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq increased as both trains of the gas plant at the Khor Mor Field began operations.

Crescent Petroleum and Dana Gas formed a consortium with Austria's OMV and MOL in 2009 that aims to pump enough gas from Iraq's Kurdistan region to kick-start the Nabucco pipeline to Europe via Turkey.

The company is also working with several international banks and legal advisors on the planned listing of its upstream business in London Stock Exchange and for the refinancing of its $1 billion Islamic bond, it said.

In April, Dana had said it would seek a London listing to gain a wider investor base and boost its stock value. The company picked four banks to arrange its planned listing on the London Stock Exchange, the International Financing Review said in August.

Dana's overdue receivables from Egypt for the gas delivered there has risen to around $200 million from $180 million previously though it was optimistic payments were coming, its chief executive said in September.

"Production operations in Egypt have continued uninterrupted, notwithstanding the challenging transitional period the country has gone through during the year," Dana said in the statement.

The company has significant investments in Egypt and its third-quarter production in the North African country averaged 40,400 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) per day. - Reuters